


In My Life, I'll Love You More

by lockwoodstie (PilotInTheStars)



Category: Lockwood & Co. - Jonathan Stroud
Genre: 1960s, Bands, Bars, Brother-Sister Relationship, Christmas, Christmas Tree, Cigarettes, Drinking, F/M, Gen, Historical AU, Phone Calls, Secret Santa Exchange, vaguely romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21939082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PilotInTheStars/pseuds/lockwoodstie
Summary: In the 1960s, Jessica Lockwood accompanies her younger brother to see his girlfriend's band perform. At the venue, she meets a young man and they begin to talk.Created for the Lockwood and Co. Discord Secret Santa Exchange. Title comes from In My Life by the Beatles.
Relationships: (Background) Lucy Carlyle/Anthony Lockwood, Anthony Lockwood & Jessica Lockwood, Quill Kipps & Jessica Lockwood, Quill Kipps/Jessica Lockwood, Quill Kipps/Other
Comments: 13
Kudos: 18





	In My Life, I'll Love You More

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bubblesodatea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bubblesodatea/gifts).



> Happy Holidays!
> 
> This was made for the Lockwood and Co. Secret Santa and is dedicated to bubs (bubblesodatea). Bubs, I'm so happy and grateful to have met you. I hope you enjoy! <3
> 
> To everyone else, I hope you also enjoy!! Thank you so much for reading! <3

_Though I know I'll never lose affection_

_For people and things that went before_

_I know I'll often stop and think about them_

_In my life I'll love you more_

\- In My Life, by the Beatles

* * *

Jessica didn’t think she’d be spending her Friday evening that warm June day chaperoning her little brother to his girlfriend’s band’s small gig. But, as her mother had pointed out, it’d be nice to get out of the house for a bit and listen to some music. If the band’s music was anything like Lucy’s personality, then it’d be great.

And she did have a love for music. It had been too long since she’d been to a concert.

Jessica and Anthony arrived at the place on time- a small little joint that was located about forty-five minutes from Portland Row in Marylebone. It looked alright enough, but it still didn’t look like the place Anthony had probably described to their parents. Oh well, they were there now.

Lucy was waiting for Anthony in the corner, and pulled him into a kiss the moment they both saw each other. 

“Thank you for coming,” Lucy said.

“How could I miss it?” Anthony replied as Lucy tossed her head to the side and made eye contact with Jessica.

“Hi Jess!” she said.

Jessica waved. “Hey, Luce. Looking forward to hearing it all.”

“I hope you enjoy it.” Lucy smiled at Jess one more time, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed Anthony again. “Got to go. George is here if you can find him,” she said.

“Well, he has to be around here somewhere.”

Lucy looked up at him, then gave him one more kiss. “See you soon.”

Anthony smiled as she walked off and turned back to his sister.

“You have lipstick on your face, Anthony.”

He quickly wiped at his face with his shirt sleeve and Jessica walked over to the bar at the venue. No one else was sitting there, except a young man likely around Jessica’s age with red hair and a splattering of freckles across his nose. He puffed on a cigarette.

“Is this seat taken?” Jessica asked him.

He shook his head. Jessica sat next to him, and Anthony joined her. They sat in silence for a few moments.

“I don’t believe I’ve seen you here before,” the man said. 

“This is my first time here.”

“I’m Kipps.”

“Jessica.”

Kipps pulled out a box of cigarettes from the pocket of his pants and offered it to her. She shook her head, and Anthony reached out his hand. She smacked it away.

The man put the box back in his pocket and Jessica ordered a drink.

“I think,” Anthony said, “I’m going to find George. Should be around here somewhere.”

“Stay safe.”

Anthony nodded, and he was off.

“Friend?”

“No, brother.”

Kipps nodded.

“We’re here for his girlfriend’s band.”

“The band that’s setting up?”

Jessica nodded and thanked the bartender handing her her drink.

“Do you live near here?”

Jessica shrugged. “Not too far. Stone’s throw away, really.”

Kipps nodded and the band started to play. Jessica turned to watch the opening. Lucy had always had a beautiful voice- Anthony and Jessica's father had played the piano a couple months earlier, when Lucy had first met them all. She had sung a couple songs for all of them. 

“They sound really lovely tonight,” Jessica said.

“They do.” Kipps took a sip of his drink, which he had otherwise left alone before that moment. He took a glance behind him. Jess saw Anthony and his other close friend, George, standing and watching the performance. 

“Got any family?”

“Mum and Dad. And my brother, of course, you just saw him, he’s over there.”

“What do your parents do?”

“They’re both professors. At the uni. Yours?”

Kipps blew out smoke from his cigarette. “My father is a lawyer. Thirty years in the profession, give or take.”

Jessica nodded, and took another sip of her drink. The song changed.

“Are you in uni still?” she asked.

“Graduating next year.”

Jessica nodded. “I just graduated this past spring.”

“What are you looking into doing?” He snuffed out the end of his cigarette and placed it on the napkin in front of him. He took a sip of his drink.

Jessica shrugged and looked down at the countertop. “I’m still looking around, I guess. Perhaps journalism?”

Kipps nodded.

“I’ve had plenty of people tell me it would be difficult to even get a job in that field. But I’m determined.” She felt herself flush at her present rambling and took another sip of her drink. 

“I believe in you.” He turned to her and smiled. “You can call me Quill. ‘Kipps’ is rather formal, now that I’m thinking about it.”

“Quill,” she said. Quill Kipps. She smiled back. “I don’t know if I said it before, but it’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you as well.” He took another sip of his drink and Jessica turned around. The band was playing another song, and Anthony and George were still in the same place as before.

“What would you like to do?”

Quill shrugged and said, “If I’m going to be honest, I’m a bit unsure. World’s changing, so we have to as well.”

“That’s true.” One only had to look outside to see everything morphing into something new all the time. “Though I suppose it’s always been like that.”

It was quiet for a few moments.

“Are you seeing anyone at the moment?” She somewhat regretted it the moment it came out of her mouth, and Quill Kipps didn’t seem to be expecting it.

_Headstrong Jess, always rushing into something._

Her father taught her how to play the piano as a child, and she had always been bold when learning new songs, and had a tendency to slam down on the piano keys.

“Gentle, Jess,” was what he’d always say, and make sure her fingers were curved when practicing the songs. Despite her father’s advice and words of piano-playing wisdom, she still slammed down on the keys.

“I was dating someone. She moved to America to study art and she thought it was best that we split.” Quill took a sip of his drink.

Jessica nodded.

“You?” he asked quietly.

“Went on a couple dates with someone a while back. Not seeing him anymore.” Jessica shrugged and took another sip of her drink. 

Quill did the same.

When they set down their drinks, nearly at the same time, their fingers brushed together. Jessica felt a rush of heat rise to her cheeks and she quickly glanced back at the band. They were probably playing their last song, or one of their last songs.

She turned back to Quill. Neither of them had moved their hands.

“Band sounds nice,” she said. 

Quill nodded.

“Do you play any instruments?” he asked.

“Piano. My father taught me. He plays it beautifully though. How about you?”

“Never had the opportunity to learn an instrument. Perhaps someday. Uh, perhaps I’ll hear you play the piano someday.”

“I’ve never really played for anyone other than family before. And for a few friends.”

They both were extremely, extremely close now.

“If you’d like to come over some time,” she said quietly, “I could play the piano.”

“That sounds lovely.”

Somehow they were even closer, aware of the small amount of space between them during that brief moment where the song had ended but the crowd hadn’t started clapping yet. The crowd eventually clapped at the end of the song, breaking the moment, and they moved away.

“I think their gig is over,” Jessica said softly.

“I think so too.”

Jessica turned to Quill one last time. Part of her didn’t want to go. She’d love to keep talking for a good long while. “It was really nice talking to you this evening.” She reached into her purse and put a couple pounds on the counter for her drink. 

“You too, Jessica.”

She smiled and quietly waved goodbye and quickly went to go find her little brother. 

Anthony, Lucy, and George were all standing in a corner of the room. A new lipstick stain, undoubtedly from Lucy, had found itself on Anthony’s cheekbone. 

“I’ll see you soon,” Anthony said to his friends, and George nodded.

“See you. Want to meet at the library?”

“That works,” Anthony said.

Anthony pulled Lucy into another kiss.

“Thank you for again for coming,” Lucy said and she turned to look at Jess again. “You too, Jess. I appreciate it.”

“Of course,” Jessica replied. “You sounded great. I’m glad we could watch.”

Lucy gave Anthony one last kiss and hug goodbye, promising to visit the next day. She started to head off, then ran back to kiss him again, and waved another farewell.

“Music sounded really good tonight,” Anthony said.

“It did. They’re all very talented.

“Thanks for coming with me,” he said, as Jessica opened the door and they walked out into the summer night. She wondered what time it was. Hopefully not too late, though, she could have been sitting at that bar counter for ten minutes or hours. Time had flown by.

“Of course.” Jessica grinned and they started to head towards the train station.

She heard the door of the building open, but didn’t turn around to look.

“Jess-”

She turned around at the sound of her nickname and glanced at Quill Kipps, the light from the streetlamp glinting off his red hair. 

“I’m sorry for running out, I just-” He took a breath. “Will I see you again?”

Jessica's mind spun for a moment. “Do you have paper?

He searched the pockets of his pants and found an old receipt and she found a pen. She scribbled something on the back of the paper and handed it to him.

“If you ever want to meet again. Call. I’ll be there.”

Her brown eyes met his gray ones.

“I’ll call. I promise.”

Quill waved farewell to Jessica and she watched as he solemnly walked back into the bar. Jessica and Anthony turned and walked to the station to catch a train home to Marylebone.

* * *

It had been six months since she had met Quill Kipps, and from that span of June to December, he hadn’t called her once. She found herself waiting by the phone in their home, the “modern luxury,” waiting for him to call her again.

She had told her mother about it a couple days after she had met him, as they were sitting together in the kitchen over mugs of tea one evening.

“Do you want him to call you?”

“I suppose.” Jessica looked at her tea mug, almost empty. Her mother took the mug from her and kissed the top of her head as she walked over to get the tea kettle.

“Things will work out, Jessica.”

That winter afternoon, a couple weeks before Christmas, the whole family was trimming the tree- guests were starting to come over, and Lucy and George were coming over for dinner that very day. Jessica and Anthony were placing the ornaments while their mother and father opened the boxes and handed the shiny baubles to them. And distantly, the phone rang.

They almost missed it because their father had just changed the record. Their mother wiped her hands on her skirt and went to get it.

“Jess," Anthony began, "how is that side of the tree looking?”

“A little sparse. Hand me an ornament?”

Anthony did that, handing her a red glass bauble. She hung it on the branch of the tree right as their mother peeked into the room.

“Jessica, dear?”

Jessica looked up from the tree. “Yes?”

“Someone is calling you.” Her mother was smiling. “You might want to take it now.”

“Alright.” She stepped back from the tree. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Anthony set the ornament he was holding back in the box and sat down in the armchair a couple feet away. 

“I’ll wait!” he called as she left.

She took the phone from her mother in the other room and she left to give her daughter privacy. Jessica held the receiver of the phone up to her ear. 

“Hello,” she said hesitantly.

“Is this Jessica?”

It was Quill Kipps. Quill, finally calling her after all of those months. 

“It is.” She hesitated for a moment. What in the world did she say to him? “I’m going to be honest- I didn’t think you were ever going to call.”

“I’m sorry. I... lost the nerve quite a few times.”

The line was quiet for a moment. 

“How have you been?” he asked.

“I’ve been alright. My family and I are decorating the Christmas tree now. You?”

“I’ve just been, uh, living, I suppose.” There was silence once again over the phone line. “Jessica, I’m so sorry that I didn’t call.”

Jessica took a breath and let go of everything she’d thought over the past six months.. “It’s alright. We are calling now, aren’t we?”

“We are. Listen, I was wondering… Would you like to meet again? Tomorrow perhaps? Or another time, another time can work just fine.”

Jessica listened into the next room- she was pretty sure Anthony was rummaging through boxes of Christmas decorations absentmindedly, and she was pretty sure her father had convinced their mother to dance with him to whatever song was playing on the record player.

“I could probably meet tomorrow.” She recalled her schedule. She could clear a few minor things. “The place where we met- would that work with you?”

She could imagine Quill smiling. “The place where we met works perfect.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!! <3 I hope you enjoyed.
> 
> Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! <3 <3 <3


End file.
